EC Custom The Mystical Sustainer review

This little handmade noise box from Israel aims to provide you with a huge range of distortions, from a soft and subtle crunch to high gain rhythm and lead.

Low gain sounds are perfect for smouldering lead runs and crisp, crunchy chord work. If you're not interested in the higher gain sounds you'll only be using a small portion of this pedal's potential - but if you are, then hold on to your headstocks because you're in for a treat.

"Turn muddy into thick or hiss into sizzle; it really is up to you."

From thunderous waves of saturation to liquid smooth sustain, this pedal obliges and owes a lot of its mojo to the controls. The level control works almost like a boost, so you get the exact volume increase you're after when you engage the pedal. Switch between different combinations of level and gain for a feel of what this pedal can do.

The tone control works as normal, but from here the fine control enables you to tweak the frequencies even further. The clever thing about this is that it solves the problems that can arise on other pedals from dialling in too much of one area. Turn muddy into thick or hiss into sizzle; it really is up to you.

The Mystical Sustainer is great as a straight boost/drive pedal, and high gain tones this good are worth every last penny. Exceptional.